Faiz Dijoo
Healthcare has historically remained one of the most sensitive and challenging sectors in Jammu and Kashmir. Unlike many other regions of the country, the challenges here were never limited to shortages of doctors or hospital infrastructure alone. Geography, political instability, harsh climatic conditions, poor connectivity in remote areas, and decades of administrative disruption have collectively weakened the healthcare delivery system across the region.
For years, access to quality treatment in Jammu and Kashmir largely depended on geography and economic status. A patient living in Srinagar or Jammu had comparatively better access to healthcare than someone residing in Kupwara, Gurez, Kishtwar, Doda, Poonch, or other far-flung areas of north and south Kashmir. In many districts, specialised treatment remained unavailable, forcing patients to travel long distances even for serious but treatable conditions. Families routinely sold property, borrowed money, or travelled outside Jammu and Kashmir for advanced procedures, including cancer treatment, cardiac care, neurosurgery, and organ-related illnesses.
The burden on tertiary hospitals consequently became enormous.
Institutions such as SMHS Hospital, SKIMS Soura, Bone & Joint Hospital, Lal Ded Hospital, and GMC-associated hospitals gradually evolved into referral centres for almost the entire region. Over time, these hospitals began handling patient volumes far beyond their designed capacity. Long waiting hours, overcrowded wards, delayed diagnostic procedures, shortages of specialists, inadequate parking, attendant congestion, and referral overload became part of everyday reality for the people.
Even today, healthcare workers and administrators acknowledge that district and sub-district hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir remain under tremendous strain due to manpower shortages and limited specialised facilities. Reports have highlighted that thousands of healthcare positions across the Union Territory continue to remain vacant, affecting patient care, particularly in rural areas.
Yet, despite these structural challenges, Jammu and Kashmir also possesses one of the most significant healthcare success stories in northern India — the establishment of the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences.
The foundation of SKIMS stands as one of the most visionary healthcare initiatives in the modern history of Jammu and Kashmir. Conceived under the leadership of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the institution was envisioned at a time when advanced tertiary healthcare within Kashmir itself appeared almost impossible. During those decades, patients frequently travelled to Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, and other metropolitan centres for specialised treatment, as such facilities were unavailable within the region.
The establishment of SKIMS fundamentally altered that reality.
Founded in 1977 and later formally functioning under its present structure from 1982 onwards, SKIMS emerged not merely as a hospital but as a specialised medical, teaching, and research institution for the entire region. Over the years, it developed into the Valley’s premier tertiary-care institution, particularly in fields such as cardiology, nephrology, oncology, gastroenterology, neurosurgery, and advanced diagnostics.
Even today, many in Kashmir regard SKIMS as a symbol of long-term institutional vision rather than short-term governance.
What makes Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s contribution particularly noteworthy is that the idea behind SKIMS was not simply to construct another hospital. The larger objective was to create an institution capable of reducing medical dependence on cities outside Jammu and Kashmir. Decades later, despite enormous patient pressure and infrastructural challenges, SKIMS continues to fulfil that role to a significant extent.
However, the success of SKIMS also exposed another reality — the growing imbalance between tertiary hospitals and peripheral healthcare institutions.
As district and sub-district hospitals struggled with infrastructure and staffing shortages, increasing numbers of patients began directly approaching tertiary institutions even for manageable medical conditions. Healthcare experts and administrators have repeatedly observed that hospitals such as SKIMS now receive an excessive referral burden partly because many secondary-level hospitals lack adequate facilities or specialist care.
This is precisely where the present phase of healthcare reforms and infrastructure expansion in Jammu and Kashmir becomes important.
In recent years, there has been a visible policy shift towards strengthening healthcare infrastructure at multiple levels rather than focusing exclusively on a few major hospitals. The government has accelerated work on medical colleges, critical care blocks, tertiary-care facilities, maternal healthcare infrastructure, AIIMS projects, diagnostic expansion, and district-level hospital upgradation.
The ongoing development of AIIMS Awantipora and AIIMS Jammu is expected to significantly expand specialised healthcare capacity within the Union Territory and reduce dependence on other states for advanced treatment. Simultaneously, newer government medical colleges in districts such as Anantnag, Baramulla, Doda, Rajouri, Kathua, and Handwara represent attempts to decentralise medical education and healthcare delivery.
Equally important is the growing emphasis on strengthening district and sub-district hospitals.
For ordinary people, healthcare accessibility is often determined not by elite institutions but by the condition of the nearest hospital available during emergencies. In Kashmir particularly, where winter weather, traffic congestion, and geographical barriers can critically delay treatment, functional local healthcare infrastructure becomes indispensable.
The approval accorded for the upgradation and completion of the Sub-District Hospital Hazratbal, therefore, carries considerable practical significance.
Hazratbal is not merely a religiously and culturally important area; it is also a densely populated urban zone witnessing substantial daily patient inflow. For years, residents repeatedly raised concerns regarding infrastructural limitations and delays affecting the hospital project. The move towards the completion and upgradation of SDH Hazratbal is important because it directly addresses pressure on tertiary institutions while simultaneously improving healthcare accessibility for thousands of residents in and around Srinagar’s Hazratbal belt.
The broader healthcare vision presently emerging in Jammu and Kashmir appears centred around reducing referral overload, improving localised healthcare access, modernising infrastructure, and enhancing institutional capacity. Officials have repeatedly stressed the need to strengthen peripheral hospitals so that tertiary institutions can focus primarily on specialised and critical care.
At the same time, serious challenges continue to persist.
Jammu and Kashmir still faces shortages of doctors, nurses, technicians, and specialists across several healthcare institutions. Rural healthcare remains uneven. Mental healthcare infrastructure is inadequate compared to growing demand. Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiac illness, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases are rising rapidly across the region. Reports have also highlighted increasing concerns related to drug addiction, mental health disorders, and lifestyle-related illnesses.
For the general public, the problems remain deeply familiar: long queues, delayed appointments, referral dependency, diagnostic delays, lack of specialist availability in peripheral districts, overcrowded emergency wards, and high out-of-pocket expenditure despite government schemes.
Healthcare in Jammu and Kashmir, therefore, remains a sector caught between substantial progress and persistent structural stress.
Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the scale of healthcare investment and institutional expansion presently underway is larger than what the region witnessed for many years. The real measure of success, however, will not depend on announcements or sanctioned projects alone. It will depend on timely completion, sustained staffing, maintenance standards, accountability, and whether healthcare actually becomes more accessible and affordable for ordinary people across both urban and remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
The people of Jammu and Kashmir have long endured the consequences of inadequate healthcare infrastructure. Their expectations today are no longer limited to survival-oriented systems; they seek efficiency, dignity, accessibility, and modern medical care within their own region.
That aspiration, perhaps more than anything else, now defines the future direction of healthcare in Jammu and Kashmir.
